Poster Presentation 2014 International Biophysics Congress

Structure prediction of GPCRs using piecewise homologs and application to the human CCR5 chemokine receptor: Validation through agonist and antagonist docking (#302)

Karthik Arumugam 1 , Seger Crouzy 2 , Andy CHEVIGNE 1 , Carole DEVAUX 1 , Jean-Claud SCHMIT 1
  1. Centre de Recherche Public de la Santé (CRP-Santé), Luxembourg
  2. iRTSV/LCBM, Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, Grenoble, France

Our research describes the construction and validation of a three-dimensional model of the human CC chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) receptor a GPCRs protein using multiple homology modeling. A new methodology is presented where we built each secondary structural model of the protein separately from distantly related homologs of known structure. The reliability of our approach for G-protein coupled receptors was assessed through the building of the human C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) receptor of known crystal structure. The models are refined using molecular dynamics simulations and energy minimizations using CHARMM, a classical force field for proteins. Finally, docking models of both the natural agonists and the antagonists of the receptors CCR5 and CXCR4 are proposed. This study explores the possible binding process of ligands to the receptor cavity of chemokine receptors at molecular and atomic levels. We proposed few crucial residues in receptors binding to agonist/antagonist for further validation through experimental analysis. In particular, our study provides better understanding of the blockage mechanism of the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CXCR4, and may help the identification of new lead compounds for drug development in HIV infection, inflammatory diseases, and cancer metastasis.